Links to other sites.

By asking nicely, we got into a sold-out NASCAR race at the new Homestead Racetrack (God had conveniently cleared the area with Hurricane Andrew three years ago). As you may know, this is not highbrow racing. This is Yee-Ha! racing. (Judging by the crowd, you'd be hard pressed to put together one entire set of teeth.) And as such, NASCAR isn't about skill, finesse or, for that matter, hygiene. It's about Budweiser and crashing. A lot.

You must be this tall to enlist

Wow, and I kinda thought my paranoid concerns about America turning into a military/industrial complex (like the Empire in Star Wars) were unfounded. Sadly, I was wrong. According to CNN.com: The Army is considering a proposal to allow a private developer to build a military-themed park that would include Cobra Gunship rides and bars including a '1st Division Lounge.' Seriously, how else will The Army be able to breed a new generation of Storm Troopers? Unrelated fun: check out Chad Vader, Day Shift Manager.

Evidently, Bush wasn’t a pigheaded, fear-mongering liar—just a Conservative.

For 8 years, I believed George Bush was an unrepentant charlatan, an ineloquent dolt and a power-hungry madman, but maybe—just maybe—I was wrong about him. Maybe there was another reason for his lies, war-mongering and mass eradication of our Constitutionally guaranteed rights and freedoms.

Helpful customer service reps almost make up for AT&T's vile, corporate policies (almost).

I'm old enough to remember a time when there was only one phone company—we called it the phone company. And while the company didn't have any competition, affordable rates or spark of innovation, it did possess a little thing called customer service. You could call Ma Bell for any reason, and in no time at all, a nice man drove up and fixed "your" phone in a jiffy, without charge. Those were the halcyon days of telecommunications. And the other day, I saw a glimmer of it again. Albeit, briefly.

Birds bring it, dogs and cats get served.

Ornithologists and bird-fanciers can (finally) hold their heads up high, extend their headcrest feathers and let loose a shrill “Ha, ha!” at arrogant owners of normal adorable, cuddly, and quiet pets. For centuries, bird owners have been viewed as the full-on nut-cases of Crazy Pet Owner set—more so than even the cat owners who dress theirs in matching sweaters, or the dog owners who carry theirs in a purse. But scientists now believe there is more to birds like cockatoos than just high-pitched shrieking, newspaper soiling and dirty-sounding names.

Dear Blank, Please Blank

Probably one of the funniest, most brilliant crowd-sourced websites you will ever see. Right up there with PostSecret, FMyLife and Texts From Last Night.
A Visit to a Steampunked Home

Bruce and Melanie Rosenbaum started ModVic (Modern Victorian) Home Restoration in June 2007 and have now moved onto steampunk Home Design.
A new way to think about sedentary behavior

But sitting on my arse is what I do best.
David & Goliath: How Customers are Sticking it to the Big Banks

Banks are jerks.
Consumer Power: What the radical Supreme Court ruling means to you

Five justices on the Supreme Court think that your voice is just as powerful as a multi-national corporation with money to burn. (Can YOU afford TV commercials on prime time television?)
Lunch notes from my permanent roommate

Post-it notes his wife put on leftovers in the fridge. Very mental.
PHD Comic: 63% of internet readers will like this comic

Polls are like facts, right?
Scott Meets Family Circus

Rude remixes of Family Circus.
FBI wants records kept of Web sites visited

Tracking website visits will only catch terrorists/child pornographers too stupid to use TOR to hide their tracks. So then, is the FBI stupid, or do they just want to spy on ordinary citizens?
Science Channel Refuses To Dumb Down Science Any Further

Straight out of Idiocracy (go rent the DVD). [Theonion.com]
Avatar Movie Review

A funny-cuz-it's-true assessment of the Avatar craze (I have to use this guy for Voice-Over in something...)
Why do people vote against their own interests?

More power to the rich!

BOOKS

I am America (And so can you!), Stephen Colbert—Sage advice for an ailing nation.
God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, Christopher Hitchens—The case against belief.
The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality, Brian Greene—A mind-bending romp through quantum physics.
Adam's Curse: A Future without Men, Bryan Sykes—It's not MY fault, it's my chromosome's.
1984, George Orwell—Who says no one can predict the future?
Nonzero : The Logic of Human Destiny, Robert Wright—It gives you hope for the future.
The Stranger, Albert Camus—Alienated existentialism at its best.
A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson—Why aren't textbooks this funny?

POLITICS

Change Congress Help keep Big Money out of politics
Earmark Watch Bringing citizen oversight to congressional spending
Money And Politics Illuminating the connection
Open Congress The real story behind what's happening in Congress
Fortune 535 Find out how wealthy your local politicians are
OpenSecrets Center for responsive politics
Citability Making government accessible, reliable, and transparent
Data.gov Public access to high-value, machine-readable data sets
Public Markup Review and comment on proposed bills before they are even introduced
FedSpending Find out where your tax money is going
The Sunlight Foundation Shining light on money, lobbying, and government
Transparency Int'l. Stop corruption to save lives.
Congresspedia The citizen's encyclopedia of Congress